As many individuals age they can become partially or completely edentulous i.e., they lose one or more teeth and, yet, gum tissue remains. This can be caused by a wide array of issues, including periodontal disease, tooth decay, improper nutrition, simple decay, developmental defects, genetic defects, and/or or trauma or other factors, presenting alone or in combination. When this occurs, individuals lose some or all of their teeth and should be fitted with one or more replacement teeth or a complete set of false teeth or bridges, implants, partial or full dentures, etc. (hereinafter often collectively referred to as “dentures” but it should be understood that the term is meant to be inclusive of everything and anything which a dentist may select to remediate a patient's tooth or teeth, i.e., within the normal range of dentistry) to replace those having been decayed or lost. To remediate and solve this issue, patients or individuals in need often get dentures, which are prosthetic, false (often acrylic or porcelain) teeth constructed to replace missing teeth. Removable, partial dentures are used when an individual has lost only some teeth, and a complete set of dentures, or dental implants, can be used when an individual is substantially or fully edentulous. The process, in the past, is done by a qualified and licensed dental practitioner and often requires more than a single dental appointment for first taking appropriate molds, sending the same to a lab, and then fitting the same into the patient's mouth. This is time consuming, expensive, possibly embarrassing to the patient until the dentures are provided, inconvenient to the patient, and often results in compromise in quality of end product. It is believed that a one-time, possibly single visit to the dentist's office, which will allow a fully or partially edentulous patient to go from a state of edentulousness to beautiful smile with a partial or complete set of dentures would be a boon to the patient, to the dentist, and to the dental manufacturer supplying the various components.
The present invention discloses the individual components, an integrated system, and a comprehensive method for preparing a set of dentures—partial or full—possibly in a single visit by using the patient's own mouth as the holding chamber or cavity for the molds and teeth to be used in the formation of dentures. In effect, the present invention provides a device for allowing the patient's own oral cavity to serve as the articulator for preparation of the dentures. Stated differently, by providing a new device, a “main frame” or articulator, which is used within the patient's mouth, dentures can be made to fit in a single visit to the dentist. The cost savings, time savings, comfort to the patient, the dentist's profitability, etc. are all maximized. This is a primary goal of the present invention.
Finished dentures are preferably composite or acrylic-molded teeth fit which are integrated into an acrylic set of gums which, as a unit, uppers and lowers, are then adhered or form fit into the mouth of a patient, fitting on the gums of the patient. These replacement teeth will be located precisely where the patient's original tooth or teeth have been lost, removed or destroyed. Of course, the new tooth or teeth are meant to match the patient's original tooth or teeth or to provide an enhanced set of teeth, all to provide a suitable smile with suitably shaped and colored teeth for the patient's mouth, complexion, smile lines, etc. For purposes of this disclosure, all types of dental procedures made possible by the present invention, namely full dentures, partial dentures, implant retention, and others, will often be hereinafter referred to collectively as “dentures.”